Wooden Historical Buildings and Determinants of their Fire Protection as a Challenge for Fire Service Officials and Preservationists

Cultural monuments in the Slovak Republic currently represent a group of objects that are difficult to protect against fire, mainly due to the lack of fire protection measures. A special position in this group is not only all-wood buildings, which are dominated by wooden churches and other sacral buildings, but also partial wooden constructions, such as ceilings, roof trusses, or using shingles as roof coverings on ​​buildings built with fireproof building materials. The article captures the current situation of ensuring protection against fires of such historical buildings from the overall overview of the determinants that have an impact on the occurrence of fire, its spread to the wooden building, or to the wooden building elements of neighboring historic buildings. At the same time, it presents the possibilities of protection against fires using fire engineering equipment, reducing the development of fire until fire intervention by fire brigades. The article further points out the limitations of an effective fire attack against a developed fire caused by the current use of the object and/or the nature of the space adjacent to the originally protected object. It also suggests procedures to solve the fire protection problem of historical buildings in the current legislative situation.